books 2008: Self-Made Man, by Norah Vincent

[supercheesegirl]

Full title: Self-Made Man: One Woman's Journey into Manhood and Back Again. What an interesting book! Norah Vincent, a writer and journalist, quit her job and went undercover for 18 months to research this book. She disguised herself as a man: not just wearing a man's clothes and hairstyle, but learning how to apply a a fake beard to be believable at close range, working with a voice coach to speak and sound more like a man, and lifting weights with a personal trainer to bulk up her upper body to look more masculine. Vincent then infiltrated spaces that are traditionally dominated by men. She started with a men's bowling league, went on to seedy strip clubs, a monastery, and on a men's therapy group retreat. She also dated women and found jobs as a man. Her findings are really interesting, and not at all what you'd expect. Experiencing the world as a man gave her an entirely new perspective on how men live and love and express emotion. The "back again" of the subtitle is also important, because Vincent became so enmeshed with her male persona that navigating the way back to her female identity was a challenge. This book is a really fascinating story about gender identity in our culture, and what it means to be a man or to be a woman. Highly recommended.

::edit:: Here's a video clip of Norah/Ned that I think appeared on 20/20. The transformation is really remarkable. This is just a taste of what Norah experienced and discovered by researching this book.

Comments

[ame0toko.livejournal.com]

My dad pretty much insisted that I read that, actually! I read it like I do all books. I started reading it and somewhere between the first and second chapter, I lost my attention span. I gave it back to him without reading further, but I saw the video and it looked very interesting!

I think my dad was just ecstatic to find a woman who genuinely understands what he bitches about all the time, but perhaps I should give it another go.